Tiivistelmä

Research has covered the entrepreneurship activity in area of online retail sales, with attempt to identify key success factors and join them into a recommended system of key performance indicators (KPIs).

There are a few studies in the areas of entrepreneurship, online commerce, business development in Russia, however, there is still no research done to identify the critical factors for success of new online shops, the possible pitfalls, and algorithms to ensure that businesses take off.The purpose of this study is to increase academic understanding of the online retail concept with the help of theoretical findings and practical data from case companies.

The present research intends to give answers to several questions. What is the current state of knowledge about small and medium size online commerce in Russia? Are there any theoretical models and recommendations that can beused for this type of activity? What are the practical recommendations that can be made based on the experience of companies in this industry on KPIs and control points?

To identify the current state of theoretical knowledge, the research of literature and other works have been done for the following areas: small and medium entrepreneurship, online commerce, business in Russia. Practical part was donein form of questionnaire-based interviews with managers and owners of selected real companies from North-West region of Russia, and analysing available quantitative information provided about business performance.

The results of this work demonstrate that certain areas of focus of control exist to ensure development of new online retail stores which were grouped into the three main recommendations and a set of five key performance indicators.